|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Response: U.S. Borders Need Better Detection Equipment By David McGlinchey “I should say at the outset that we need to be realistic about our prospects,” Defense Threat Reduction Agency Director Stephen Younger told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “It’s also not clear to me that we’ll ever have a foolproof or a leak-proof shield for the United States.” The Customs Service needs to prepare a plan to deal with shortcomings in border security, according to Gary Jones, General Accounting Office director of natural resources and environment. “We believe that it is important that Customs develop a comprehensive plan for installing radiation detection equipment at all U.S. border crossings and ports of entry, and in the near term, while the plan is being developed, consider immediate steps to deploy currently available radiation detection equipment,” Jones said in prepared testimony Thursday. Radiation pagers, worn on Customs inspectors’ belts, have “limited range and are not designed to detect weapons-usable nuclear material,” Jones said. Customs has 4,200 of the pagers and plans to purchase 4,000 more by next September (see GSN, Oct. 11). The pagers should be used in conjunction with portal monitors — designed to scan humans and vehicles for radioactive material — according to Jones. The United States has spent more than $11 million installing large portal monitors in Russia, yet there was only one operating domestically, according to GAO. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner defended Customs’ work on the borders, saying his service does not need to screen every shipment equally and has deployed a large amount of technology to secure borders. “First, the process begins with targeting,” Bonner said. “Cargo identified as posing a potential threat is then screened for security purposes.” Bonner said 96 “large scale X-ray and gamma ray imaging systems” have been put in place for screening, along with 200 van-mounted radiation detection units to scan smaller packages. On order are 400 “isotope identifiers,” at least one of which will be sent to every U.S. port of entry. Bonner singled out the portal monitors, which are also to be delivered, as particularly useful. Customs has purchased 172 of the larger monitors and expects 40 to be delivered soon; the United States reportedly hopes to have 400 portal monitors by October of next year. “So there is some capability to detect nuclear materials at U.S. ports of entry,” said Bonner. None of the proposed radiation detection technologies, pagers or portals, was completely effective against shielded radioactive material, Younger said. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, however, has established a New Mexico test bed to test and improve detection technology. “Sometimes things work well in the laboratory but when you get them out into the field they have problems,” he said. “We need to know, does it work in the rain? Does it work when it gets dirty? Does it work when the batteries are low? Can you train a 19-year-old to use this reliably?” Other Measures Other officials urged Congress to look beyond radiation detectors alone and detailed other steps being taken to prevent nuclear materials from entering or transiting the United States. “It’s not just detectors,” said Younger. “We need to control material at the source, where it is, be it in another country or in the United States.” Younger cited the Pentagon’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program to secure WMD material in the former Soviet Union as an example of addressing the threat at the source. Linton Brooks, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said his agency was using its expertise to train organizations from the FBI to the Coast Guard. He said his organization was also looking to the realities of border control and working to adapt technology accordingly. “We’re very proud to be working with Customs and are committed to continue to provide the technological support wherever we can,” Brooks said. “We have a long way to go,” said Younger. “But I think we’re making important progress.”
| ||||||||||
Back to top
